Why You Should Watch Steven Universe

(Originally written for the McClatchy High School Feminist Coalition zine)

In the first episode of Steven Universe, the primary conflict faced by the titular character is that his favorite brand of ice cream sandwich has been discontinued. By the most recent, he and his allies are confronting the ruthless dictator of a galaxy-spanning empire. Along the way, the show demonstrates creative animation, intricate worldbuilding, deeply complex characters, excellent music, and the best plot twists I have ever encountered. However, Steven Universe may be most innovative in how it approaches gender. The show’s high proportion of female characters is the most obvious manifestation of this, but even its male characters usually invert or critique conventionally gendered expectations. Before delving into those subversions, a summary of the show’s premise: Steven Universe is a Cartoon Network show created by Rebecca Sugar about a group of magical aliens called the Crystal Gems who defend humanity while raising a half-human, half-gem boy named Steven. It has interesting characters and fun humor from the beginning, but the plot gradually expands in scope and seriousness from monster-of-the-week shenanigans to high-stakes space opera. This essay contains some very mild spoilers for the show, but it won’t significantly damage the viewing experience if you decide to watch after reading it.

One of Rebecca Sugar's stated goals for Steven Universe was to scramble and remix the gender roles which dominated the stories of her youth, and nowhere is this more evident that in two central pairs of characters: Steven and his friend Connie, and Steven's parents. In most animated shows with a male protagonist, his primary female peer would be a love interest character who takes a mostly passive role, supporting his bold heroism. Steven and Connie flip this dynamic on its head. He is more emotionally expressive, more empathetic, and more likely to try to resolve conflicts peacefully, with healing powers and a magical shield. She is more intellectual, more practical, more willing to approach problems aggressively, and wields a sword into battle despite her lack of magical abilities. Despite Steven being a male protagonist, Connie tends to take on the more traditionally heroic role when they work together, breaking both with traditional gender roles and with conventional ideas about the kind of character a fantasy story should focus on. This subversion is also clear in Steven's parents, Rose Quartz and Greg Universe.

Imagine you are told that the hero of a story has a mother and a father, one of whom is a normal human who raises him and eventually has to be saved from magical threats, while the other is a legendary general who is the source of the hero's unique power and whose legacy casts a shadow over the entire story. Going by traditional narrative logic, it would be reasonable to assume that the caretaker is the mother and and the mythical warrior in the father. Not so in Steven Universe, where Greg is the mundane parent who supports Steven but is mostly helpless against supernatural forces while his mother Rose is the gem who gave him is magical abilities. Steven's quest to understand who his mother was and and how she affected the world (since she is gone by the time the show begins) is perhaps the show's best plotline largely because of how fascinating a character Rose is. She juxtaposes a very feminine appearance with a narrative role typically reserved for men, leading ancient armies into battle in a flowing dress and long, pink hair. I won't go into any more detail to avoid spoilers, but for me Rose's story is a wonderful example of what makes Steven Universe great.

Beyond its deconstruction of gender roles, Steven Universe deals with a host of other important topics rarely addressed intelligently in media, particularly media geared towards kids. It explores the dynamics of unhealthy and abusive relationships and how people recover from them, one of its villains is an evocative embodiment of societal pressure to project a facade of happiness, and despite fierce resistance from Cartoon Network it eventually manages to include the first same-gender wedding in an animated American children’s show. Even if you don’t typically watch kids’ cartoons I highly recommend Steven Universe, both for its superb storytelling and its feminist ideals.